[user104658]

I can appreciate that Uni students, during those years, could be seen as "doing very little" but there's more to the University experience than that, in my opinion. More to it than the job you get / money you make afterwards, too. About to throw out some MASSIVE generalizations here but... meh... it is true:

People who I know around my age, in their 20's / 30's. The ones who went to University are generally making less money than the ones who went straight into employment or trades. Yes. However, the ones who went straight into employments and trades are - in general - ****ing pig ignorant to anything in the world outside of their home town (which they probably grew up in, and went to school in too). They are fixing up the same houses they walked past when they were 5 years old. They're drinking in the same dusty pubs, with the same dusty friends, that they had their first pint in at 18. Fast forward 40 years and the ones who haven't drunk or eaten themselves to death will still be drinking in those same dusty pubs with the same dusty friends.

A University education teaches you how to think critically, to reason, to use logic. To know more about the world - to be INTERESTED in knowing more about the world - than what has fallen into your tiny sphere of existence.

I know the former is enough for some people. "Go to school get a trade get a job get married have some kids buy a house retire die". It's (rightly) not enough for many people.

I'm also not going to pretend that there aren't a huge number of students who fail to make the most of their time at University. There definitely are. In my opinion, though, much of that is due to massive failings in how the education system preceding University works. That is a WHOLE other debate, though. It's also sort of irrelevant. Stating that University is a "waste of time" for anyone who isn't seeking a vocational qualification is, frankly, bull****. It stems from the sort of mindset that thinks "work work working and accumulating wealth" is the be all and end all of the human experience.